A spectacularly dishonest Tory bar chart

This Tory bar chart – courtesy of the excellent Richard Osley – is an absolute masterclass in political deception. Labour’s Glenda Jackson won the seat of Hampstead and Kilburn in 2010 in what was one of the tightest three-way marginals in the country – but you wouldn’t necessarily gather that from the bar chart. For some reason the Tory bar is higher than the Labour one (despite admitting that Labour has a majority) whilst the poor forgotten Lib Dems languish far behind the other two parties (despite running them nip and tuck throughout the election campaign).

Simon Marcus may be -as he claims – “doing the right thing”, but he’s using the wrong bar chart.

Here is it in all its glory: